THE ANC is pushing for the establishment of more state-owned enterprises covering diverse areas such as publishing, banking, medicines, manufacturing and mining.

The state-owned companies will do business directly with the government and most likely compete with the private sector.

In its policy discussion papers the ANC has provided more details about its plans to use Post Bank as state bank and also establish a publishing enterprise and a pharmaceutical company, with the government as a controlling shareholder. A state-owned mining company has been established.

The discussion papers, due for release on Monday, state that the postal infrastructure and Post Bank are needed by government to deliver services to the people.

"As such, ownership of the post office and the Post Bank by government should be linked to efforts to ensure that the two institutions are sustainable."

The party says in its papers that a state bank should not only be defined in terms of ownership, but in terms of the services that are delivered by Post Bank.

"To achieve this the government should introduce policy guidelines to direct opportunities to the Post Bank as a bank of first choice of government and a primary platform for government and citizens' transaction," the paper states.

If implemented, the proposal could see major banks losing the accounts of government entities.

The ANC also wants to establish a state-owned publishing enterprise which will help with production and distribution of books to ensure their availability in all learning places.

The documents raise concerns that methods and practice of acquisition from the private sector plus distribution in government were neither cost-effective nor efficient.

The documents give more details about the plans to establish a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant that will see government producing medicine.

The ANC, however, acknowledges its plans can be sabotaged by a lack of skilled employees in the government.

"Good implementation will require that we build state capacity, establishing high standards of employment in the public service, raise levels of professionalism, discipline and a commitment to serve," the party said.

WikipediaNationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state.[1] Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being transferred to the public sector to be operated and owned by the state. The opposite of nationalization is usually privatization or de-nationalization, but may also be municipalization.

The motives for nationalization are political as well as economic. It was a central theme of certain fascist, economic nationalist, populist and national liberation policies that industry should be owned by the state on behalf of the citizenry to allow for consolidation of resources and central planning for the purposes of economic development.

Nationalization was one of the major strategies advocated by socialists for transitioning from capitalism to socialism. Socialist ideologies that favor nationalization are typically called state socialism. In this context, the goals of nationalization were to dispossess large capitalists and redirect the profits of industry to the public purse, as a precursor to the long-term goals of establishing worker-management and reorganizing production toward use.

Nationalisation according to Wikipedia. Full article can be found HERE